An antifuse circuit for use in a semiconductor memory device is disclosed which can be used as a replacement for a defective memory cell thereby making the cell operable in a more stable manner.
Advances in semiconductor fabrication techniques and in a memory design have led to the commercial production of semiconductor memories, which hold millions of bits of information. It is important that a manufacturer verify that each and every bit or memory cell on a semiconductor memory chip is addressable before the chip is sold.
However, due to the large number of bits or memory cells on each chip, it is unrealistic to assume that chips can be fabricated with every bit or memory cell position functioning. Physical defects in the manufacturing process tend to make it very difficult to manufacture devices of such a high bit density without one or more bits or memory cells becoming defective.
Although a manufacturer cannot sell a semiconductor memory chip without ensuring that the full range of addresses is functional, discarding memory chips having defective bits is wasteful, inefficient and costly. Thus, it is desirable to provide an approach, which allows fabrication of a memory chip with redundant bits or cells to compensate for the inevitable bit or memory cell defects.
Designers have incorporated one or more redundant rows or columns into memory devices to provide a method of patching bit or memory cell errors in memory chips. That is, redundant cells are provided which can be accessed when testing indicates the existence of bit or memory cell defects in the memory device. If, for example, a bit or a memory cell in a first column of a memory array is found to be defective, the entire first column is typically replaced by using a substitute column. The patch or replacement is accomplished using a bank of polysilicon fuses. The address of the patched or replaced column is burned into the fuse bank using techniques known in the art. Thus, whenever the address of the defective column is presented to the semiconductor memory, the replacement column will be accessed instead. This solution reduces the number of wasted memory chips, which would otherwise be unusable due to defective bits or memory cells.
However, the above procedure of patching the defected semiconductor memory cell needs to be performed before packaging the memory device. After packaging, the fuse could not be broken or blown out by using a laser beam of a conventional technique. That is, using such a conventional fuse bank, it could not repair the defected semiconductor device after packaging the semiconductor memory device. Therefore, in order to overcome the above problem after packing, an antifuse circuit is further introduced in a semiconductor memory device.
FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a conventional antifuse circuit employing an antifuse.
As shown, the conventional antifuse circuit includes an antifuse block 10, a power-up signal generator 20, a high-voltage generator 30 and a redundancy circuit 40.
The antifuse circuit 10 receives a program-mode selection signal PGM and an address signal ADDR to generate an antifuse enable signal ANT_EN. The power-up signal generator 20 outputs a power-up signal VEXT_DET representing a stabilization of a power provided in the semiconductor device after the power is supplied to the semiconductor device. The high-voltage generator 30 supplies a high-voltage to the antifuse block 10 in order to program the antifuse block 10. The redundancy circuit 40 servers to perform the replacement operation for a defective memory cell in response to the antifuse enable signal ANTI_EN from the antifuse block 10.
FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of the conventional antifuse block 10 shown in FIG. 1.
As shown, the antifuse block 10 includes an antifuse unit 11 for controlling the antifuse being short-circuited or insulated in response to the program mode selection signal PGM and the address signal ADDR. The antifuse block 10 also includes an antifuse precharge unit 12 for precharging the antifuse unit 11 according to a power-up signal.
The antifuse unit 11 includes a NAND gate ND1, a PMOS transistor MP1, two NMOS transistors MN1 and MN2, an antifuse ANT_FUSE and two invertors I1 and I2.
The output port of the NAND gate ND1 is connected to a gate of the PMOS transistor MP1 and a gate of NMOS transistor MN2 and receives two signals PGM and ADDR. The PMOS transistor MP1 is coupled to an external voltage source of a first voltage level Vext between the NMOS transistor MN2. The NMOS transistor MN2 is coupled to another NMOS transistor MN1 in serial. A gate of the MN1 is coupled to the PGM and the NMOS transistor MN1 is coupled to a ground of a second voltage level Vss. The antifuse ANTI_FUSE is coupled to a common node N1 of the MP1 and MN2. The antifuse ANTI_FUSE receives a high voltage signal VBB_ANTI generated from the high-voltage generator 30. The invertors I1 and I2 are coupled to the common node N1 in order to generate the antifuse enable signal ANTI_EN. The invertors I1 and I2 employ an internal voltage source of a third voltage level Vint as an operation voltage and output the antifuse enable signal ANTI_EN corresponding a fourth voltage level of the node N1 to the redundancy circuit 40 by latching the fourth voltage level of the node N1.
The antifuse precharge unit 12 includes an inverter 13 and a PMOS transistor MP2. The inverter 13 serves to invert the power-up signal VEXT_DET. The PMOS transistor MP2 receives an inverted power-up signal from the inverter 13 to thereby selectively couple the first voltage level Vext to the node N1.
FIG. 3 is a timing diagram for explaining an operation of the antifuse block shown in FIG. 2.
Hereinafter, a conventional antifuse circuit by employing the antifuse is explained in detail as referring to the FIGS. 1 to 3.
The high-voltage generator 30 outputs a voltage signal of a fifth voltage level VBB_ANTI. The fifth voltage level VBB_ANTI can vary according to the operational mode. It becomes a low-voltage level (less than, e.g., xe2x88x923V) in a program mode and becomes, e.g., 0V as like as a ground voltage level Vss in a normal mode.
In the program mode, when the PGM of a high voltage level and the ADDR of a high voltage level are inputted to the antifuse unit 11, the ND1""s output becomes a low voltage level. The MP1 becomes turned on and MN2 becomes turned off. Therefore, the fourth voltage level of the node N1 is increased to the first voltage level Vext, e.g., +3.3V and the fifth voltage level VBB_ABTI of, e.g., xe2x88x923V is applied to another terminal of the antifuse ANTI_FUSE. As a result, an insulation material or layer of the antifuse becomes broken and the antifuse ANTI_FUSE is then short-circuited as demonstrated in a xe2x80x9cshort circuit statexe2x80x9d A1 of FIG. 3.
On the other hand, in the program mode, if the PGM is inputted as a high voltage level signal and the ADDR is inputted as a low voltage level signal, then an output of the ND1 becomes a high voltage level. Therefore, the NMOS transistors MN1 and MN2 become turned on and the node N1 become a low voltage level. As a result, a voltage between 0V and xe2x88x923V is applied both ends of the antifuse ANTI_FUSE and the insulation material or layer of the antifuse is unbroken to thereby maintain the initial insulation as depicted in an xe2x80x9cinsulation state A2xe2x80x9d of FIG. 3
When the antifuse ANTI_FUSE is programmed as the short circuit A1 of FIG. 3, at the initial state, an external voltage source of the first voltage level Vext is applied to a semiconductor and a power-up signal VEXT_DET is inputted to the antifuse precharge unit 12. The voltage level of the power-up signal VEXT_DET is increased according to the first voltage level Vext and it becomes a low voltage level when the first voltage level Vext becomes stable.
On the other hand, the program mode selection signal PGM is a low voltage level and an output of NAND gate ND1 then become a high voltage level. The PMOS transistor MP1 and NMOS transistor MN1 is turned off and other NMOS transistor MN2 is turned on. The antifuse short-circuited is coupled to the fifth voltage level VBB_ANTI, which is identical to the second voltage Vss.
Therefore, a voltage level of the node N1 is changed according to the power-up signal VEXT_DET. When the power-up signal VEXT_DET becomes low, an internal voltage source of the third voltage level Vint is generated. If the third voltage level Vint is applied to the inverters I1 and I2 and then the output signal ANTI_EN of the antifuse unit 11 have the same voltage level of the internal power voltage Vint.
Another initial operation of the semiconductor device is explained in detail when the antifuse is programmed as the insulation state A2 of FIG. 3.
At the initial state, the first voltage level Vext is applied to the semiconductor device and the power-up signal VEXT_DET of a high voltage level is then inputted to the antifuse precharge unit 12. The program mode selection signal PGM is a low voltage level and an output of NAND gate ND1 becomes a high voltage level. The PMOS transistor MP1 and NMOS transistor MN1 is turned off and other NMOS transistor MN2 is turned on.
Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 3, the voltage level of the node N1 is varied according to the power-up signal VEXT_DET. If the power-up signal VEXT_DET becomes a low voltage level, the voltage level of node N1 maintains as a floating state until the third voltage level Vint is applied to the inverters I1 and I2 since the antifuse maintains the insulating state.
As described in a time period T1 of FIG. 3, the voltage level of the floated node N1 becomes very unstable according to other factors of the semiconductor device to thereby affect on the antifuse enable signal ANT_EN. Therefore, there may be a potential problem that the unstable antifuse signal causes errors in the control of the antifuse as depicted in FIG. 3.
Furthermore, as described above, the external voltage level Vext is directly applied to an end of the antifuse at initial mode in accordance with the power-up signal VEXT_DET. A capacitor structure used as an antifuse is produced at the same manufacture process for producing a capacitor for memory cell. The reliability of the capacitor can be guarantied when applying a voltage identical to or lower than the internal voltage level Vint. However, if the external voltage is applied directly to the capacitor, the reliability of the capacitor cannot be guarantied. That is, if the external power voltage is applied to the antifuse made by using the capacitor structure, there is high possibility for the antifuse to be short-circuited even though there is no defective memory cell in the semiconductor device.
Therefore, an antifuse circuit is disclosed for effectively increasing the reliability of an antifuse circuit of a semiconductor device.
In one embodiment, an antifuse circuit for generating an antifuse enable signal for use in repairing a defected memory cell of a semiconductor device comprises: an antifuse unit employing an antifuse, wherein the antifuse is controlled as being shorted or insulated according to a repair program; an antifuse precharge unit for precharging the antifuse by using a predetermined voltage level in response to a power-up signal, wherein the predetermined voltage level is lower than that of an external voltage source; and an output latch unit driven by the predetermined voltage level for latching a antifuse voltage level appearing on the antifuse and generating the antifuse enable signal corresponding to the antifuse voltage level.
In another embodiment, an antifuse circuit comprises: an antifuse unit employing an antifuse, wherein the antifuse is controlled as a short-circuited state or a an insulation state according to a repair program; a program unit for programming one of the short-circuited and the insulation state of the antifuse in response to a program mode selection signal and an address signal; an antifuse precharge unit for precharging the antifuse by using a predetermined voltage level in response to a power-up signal, wherein the predetermined voltage level is lower than that of an external voltage source; and an output latch unit driven by the predetermined voltage level for latching a antifuse voltage level appearing on the antifuse and generating the antifuse enable signal corresponding to the antifuse voltage level.